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CHARLES 


ALLEN 



OF WORCESTEIl 



BY 



GEORGE F. HOAK 



CHARLES ALLEN 



OF WORCESTER 



BY 



- \r? 

ge;orge f. hoar. 



KKF'RINTED FKOM PllOCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, 

October Meeting, 1901. 



«j<»=»™*««, 




Wottt^iet, Pasi^., m. ^. §^. 

PRESS OF CHARLES HAMILTON, 

311 MAIN STREET. 

19 2. 



E340 



tointniriiesi 



CHARLES ALLEN OF WORCESTER. 



If I need any justification for my choice of a subject, 
or for repeating things which will be very familiar to the 
elders in my audience, you will permit me to relate an 
anecdote. A few years ago an inhal)itant of Worcester 
County, very well known and influential in the public life 
of this Commonwealth, told me that an aged townsman of 
his had said that the ablest man he ever knew was a former 
resident of Worcester, of whose character and influence 
he spoke with very great enthusiasm. But my informant 
said he could not remember the name. I said, " Was it 
Charles Allen ?" "Yes," was the reply, "I think that 
was the name." 

Our associate, Mr. Rhodes, in his admirable History, 
mentions Judge Allen in but a single sentence, and that 
one expressing an emphatic disapproval of one of the 
important acts of his public life. 

To those of us whose memory goes back to the great 
days of the anti-slavery struggle it seems as surprising to 
find a man who had never heard of Charles Allen as to find 
a man who had never heard of his illustrious kinsman 
Sam Adams. Yet, I suppose that thirty or forty years 
after the close of a great political career or a great his- 
toric period is generally the time when mankind at large 
know least about it. Memory has begun to fade. Con- 
temporaries are dead or grown old. History is not yet 
written. The documents and records which are the mate- 
rial for accurate history have not yet come to light. 

The life of Charles Allen was in a stormy time. K, 
became his duty to engage in bitter conflicts. After his 



lamented death it did not seem desirable to those who had 
the best right to determine the question that those fires 
should be rekindled. But the story of Judge Allen's 
o-reat service to liberty and of the l)attle in which he was 
one of the greatest leaders can be told now without causing 
pain to any one. The men who Avere conspicuous on both 
sides have gone, with very few exceptions. The people 
have paid to them their tribute of love and honor. Tliey 
know that men who differed widely were faithful to the 
cause of righteousness as they believed it, and to the 
interest of the country as they understood it. 1 have 
often said that Charles Allen seemed to me, as a mere intel- 
lectual force, the ablest man I have known in my day, not 
even excepting Daniel Webster. He had a slender physi- 
cal frame and a weak voice. He was not capal)le of severe 
or continued labor. He had little personal ambition. It 
was only under the stimulant of a great cause that he put 
forth his best powers; and when the pressure of that 
stimulant ceased, his activity seemed to cease also. 

Charles Allen was l)orn in the town of Worcester, Aug. 
0th, 1797, just seventy-two years before the day of his 
burial. He was of the best Puritan stock. His father, 
Joseph Allen, Avas a distinguished and public-spirited 
citizen, clerk of the courts, and a member of Congress in 
1810 and 1811. Judge Allen's great-grandfather was 
Samuel Adams, the father of the illustrious patriot, who 
manifested in a high degree the intellectual and moral 
traits for Avhich his descendants were so conspicuous. TJte 
Independent Adveriiser of March 14, 1748, contains the 
following notice of the elder Samuel Adams : — " Last 
Week died, and was decently interr'd the Remains of, 
SawMel Adams, Esq. ; a Gentleman who sustained many 
public. Offices among us, and for some Years past repre- 
sented this town in the General Assembly — He was one 
who well understood and riglitly i)ursued the Civil and 
Religious Interests of this People— A true Neio England 



man — An honest Patriot — Help, Lord, for such wise 
and godly men cease, and such faithful members fail from 
among the Sons of New England." The only son of the 
famous Samuel Adams died l)efore his father. Joseph 
Allen, who was often a member of the Legislature, 
found a home in the household of his illustrious kins- 
man, to whom he was as a son, and for many years 
shared his inmost confidence as it was given to no other 
person whatever. The traditions of Sam Adams were 
familiar to the family of Joseph Allen. His mental 
and moral traits ; his opinions ; his inflexible princi- 
ples ; his ardent and unquenchable love of liberty ; his 
style and mode of speech ; his features as they are repre- 
sented in Copley's masterpiece in Faneuil Hall, — were 
reproduced in large degree in the sons of Joseph Allen.* 
Charles Allen entered Yale College in 1811, but was never 
graduated. He studied law in the office of Samuel M. 
Burnside. His preparation was a most diligent and faith- 
ful study of common law principles in a very few standard 
authorities, especially Blackstone, in whose style, clear 
definitions and orderly arrangement he very much delighted, 
and much of which he could repeat almost verbatim. He 
was not given to an extensive stud}'^ of cases. Indeed, in 
his preparation for arguments at the bar, after a thorough 
examination of a very few leading cases, he did not care 
for a study of decisions of the courts, but preferred to 
mature his arguments in his own mind during his solitary 
walks into the countrj^, or as he paced backward and for- 
ward in his office. But I was told by his brother George 
that when he was examined for admission to the Bar the 
examiners were so delighted l)y the extent of his learning 
and his prompt and clear solution of the legal problems by 
which they tested him that they prolonged the examination 
a good while for their own gratification. 

1 There is a lady living now, the widow of our late Librarian, Mr. Haven, who is 
of the race of Charles Allen, and at times when her face is lighted up by some 
emotioQ, you would thiuk Sam Adams was standing before you. 



Mr. Allen's literary training was of a like character. 
He made himself very familiar with English classic poetry. 
He read the entire fifty volumes of the old edition of 
the British Poets. With a few of these he made himself 
so familiar that he could repeat their best passages. Beyond 
this he never cared much to extend his reading, except 
that he made himself familiar Avith the great historians 
who have written the annals of constitutional liberty. He 
had a great fondness for the history of New England. 
He knew all about the growth of its religious opinions 
and of the simple Congregational form of church govern- 
ment which is both the cause and the result of so much 
that is best in the character of our people. With these 
exceptions, he was not what would be called a scholar. 
He cared nothing for the trifles either of histor}^ or litera- 
ture. His preparation for the duties of his profession and 
of life was by profound original thought. He was ad- 
mitted to the Bar at the age of twenty-one, and began his 
professional life in New Braintree. In 1824 he returned 
to Worcester, which was his home for the rest of his life. 

From this time until the movement for the annexation of 
Texas in 1844-5, the career of Charles Allen was that of a 
leader at the very able Bar of a large county ; of an emi- 
nent judge ; of a man influential in the public life of the 
community where he lived, and of the Commonwealth. 
With a single exception, to be mentioned presently, he 
had taken no part in national affairs. His name was little 
known beyond the borders of Massachusetts except to such 
meml^ers of his profession as had heard of him from their 
bretliren here. He soon became known as a powerful 
advocate whose opinions on questions of law were quite 
sure to be those finally adopted by the court ; whom 
it was almost impossible to dislodge from any position he 
deliberately occupied ; and from whom no antagonist could 
wrest a verdict of a Worcester County jury in a cause 
in whose justice he himself believed. There is but one 



story preserved by the traditions of the Bar of his making 
any serious mistake. It is said that, getting an execution 
for a client for a large debt, which was to be satisfied by a 
levy on land of a debtor who was deeply insolvent, where 
he had the first attachment, under his direction a i)or- 
tion of a large tract of land in which the debtor had an 
undivided interest was set off l)y metes and bounds, a 
proceeding which is, as is well known to all good lawyers 
now, utterly void. The young man discovered his mis- 
take just after it was too late to correct it. He was much 
distressed and came to Worcester to consult old Major 
Newton, one of the wisest and safest of our elder lawyers. 
The Major advised Mr. Allen to say nothing about the 
mistake, but at once to bring a writ of entry against the 
owner of the title in the hope that the mistake might not 
be discovered, and that he might get a judgment or a dis- 
claimer. This was done, and the flaw in the title of the 
Judo-e's client was never discovered until he had made it 
perfect. 

He never could get interested in a case in which he did 
not believe. He had no fondness for exercising his in- 
o-enuity in the defence of a cause which did not seem to 
him just. But when his sympathies were aroused by what 
he deemed an attempt to practise an injustice upon his 
client, he was, I believe, as formidable an antagonist as 
ever tried a case in a Massachusetts court-house. His 
cross-examination was terrible. It dragged a lying witness 
out of all concealments or subterfuges and seemed to lay 
bare the very depths of his soul. His style was a model 
of nervous, compact, vigorous English, rising sometimes 
to a very lofty eloquence. He had a gift of sarcasm which 
he indulo-ed sometimes when it would have been better to 
restrain it, and inflicted an undeserved sting upon amiable 
and sensitive men. His ordinary manner in the trial of 
a cause was quiet. He remained silent while the evidence 
was going in, except in the most important parts of the 



8 

case, and even a very able lawyer might try a case against 
him which did not excite special interest on the part of 
Mr. Allen, without discovering his great power. 

His quality as an advocate is well described by a most 
competent and accomplished observer, the late Dwight 
Foster, as follows : — " He never called anj^ man his intel- 
lectual master. Though the ordinary methods of legal 
investigation were distasteful to him, yet he was fond of 
communing with his own mind in silent and profound 
thought. His preparation in the use of books was usually 
slight, but he never failed to give abundant reflection to 
every important matter intrusted to his professional care. 

"Accordingly, he entered upon the trial of a case thor- 
oughly prepared and equipped in his own peculiar way. 
His mental processes were exceedingly rapid and his intui- 
tive judgment wonderfully correct. He was the wisest 
counsellor I ever called to my aid. 

" In the crisis of a trial he never faltered or quailed. If 
his manner grew a little more quiet, his face a little paler, 
and a dangerous light was emitted from his eyes, his ad- 
versary had better beware, for he was sure to prove himself 
a tremendous antagonist. His cross-examinations were 
sometimes terrific. When roused he would pour forth a 
torrent of sarcasm and invective that like a lava flood 
scorched and burned everything over which it flowed. He 
could be eloquent upon worthy occasions. He had no 
cheap rhetoric for ordinary use. His legal discussions 
usually began with conceded elementary principles, on 
which as a foundation he would erect a superstructure of 
close and cogent argumentation. It was his custom to 
show what the law ought to be and in the nature of the 
case must be, paying comparatively little attention to what 
it had been on some former occasion decided to be." 

When I came to the Bar in 18 U), the vouni^ lawvers used 
to l)eo;uile the time at their meetino-s with anecdotes of the 
sharp retorts, the readiness in diflicult places in a trial, and 



the wonderful skill in cross-examination of Charles Allen. 
Most of them are forgotten now. Judge Allen repre- 
sented Worcester in the Massachusetts House of Repre- 
sentatives in 1829, 1833, 1834 and 1840. He was 
a member of the State Senate in 1835, 1836 and 1837. 
When in the House of Representatives he was one of the 
most influential persons in procuring the state aid for the 
Western Railroad, a measure to which the commercial and 
manufacturing prosperity of Massachusetts, and especially 
of the City of Worcester, have been so largely due. 

Judge Allen was upon the committee to count the vote 
for Governor after the election of 1839. The Legislature 
contained a majority of Whigs, as of course did the com- 
mittee who counted the votes for Governor and Lieutenant- 
Governor. The count resulted, according to the first 
enumeration by the committee, and according to their 
report, in showing that no person had a majority, the 
result of which would have been that the election would 
have been made by the Legislature, and Mr. Everett, the 
Whig candidate, would have been chosen. But it came to 
the knowledge of Judge Allen that an error had been 
made, the correction of which Avould show that Gov. 
Morton was chosen by a majority of one vote. The 
Judge, himself a Whig, announced this discovery to the 
House. The mistake was corrected and Gov. Morton 
declared elected. 

Mr. Allen was appointed judge of the old Court of 
Common Pleas in 1842. This court consisted in his time 
of John M. Williams, Chief Justice, Charles H. Warren, 
diaries Allen and Solomon Strong. Probably no state in 
the Union at that time possessed a Supreme Court of 
greater ability than this, the second court in rank in Massa- 
chusetts. Chief Justice Williams was a model of the 
judicial character ; Warren was not only a very learned 
and sound lawyer, but distinguished for his brilliant wit 
and eminent social quality. When the Democratic party 



10 

came into power in 1843 it sought to gain popular favor 
by a reduction of the salaries of the Supreme Judicial 
Court, a measure clearly opposed to the letter of the Con- 
stitution, and by a reduction of the salaries of the Court of 
Common Pleas, a measure equally opposed to its spirit and 
to all sound policy. On the return of the Whigs to power 
the next year, the salary of the Supreme Court was re- 
stored to its former scale, and the sum which had been 
unconstitutionally withheld during the year, paid. But 
the Whig party, desiring to get some favor from men of 
frugal mind, omitted to restore the salaries of the judges 
of the Court of Common Pleas to the old standard. There- 
upon, in 1844, the members of that court, including Judge 
Allen, resigned, much to the public regret. During Mr. 
Allen's term of office the celebrated Wyman trial, in which 
Mr. Webster, Mr. Choate and Franklin Dexter were em- 
ployed for the defence, was tried three times. One of the 
trials was before Judge Allen. At this trial occurred the 
celebrated conflict between Judge Allen and Mr. Webster. 
The story is variously related, even by persons who were 
present on the occasion. The commonly accepted version, 
and one which is doubtless in substance correct, is that Mr. 
Webster was quite uneasy under the powerful and lumi- 
nous charge of the Judge, and rose once or twice to call 
the Judge's attention to what he supposed to be a mistake 
of fact or law. After one or two interruptions of this 
sort, Mr. Webster rising again, the Judge said, "Mr. 
Webster, I cannot suffer myself to be interrupted now." 
To which Mr. Webster replied, " I cannot suffer my 
client's case to be misrepresented." To which the Judge 
replied, " Sit down, sir." The charge proceeded without 
further interruption, and the jury were sent to their room. 
Mr. Allen then turned to Mr. Webster and said, " Mr. 
Webster" — Whereupon Mr. Webster rose with all the 
grace and courtesy of manner of which, when he chose, 
he was master, and said, " Will your honor pardon me a 



11 

moment,"' and proceeded to make a handsome apology and 
expression of regret for the occurrence. The occurrence 
was deemed by the profession greatly to the credit of both 
these eminent persons. Mr. Allen returned to the prac- 
tice of the law, and continued to support himself by his 
profession, except so far as he was interrupted by his 
public and political occupations, until he was appointed 
Chief Justice of the Superior Court of the Count}^ of 
Suffolk by Gov. Banks, in 1858, and soon after, in the 
following year, was appointed Chief Justice of the Supe- 
rior Court of the Commonwealth. He had been, in the 
interval, offered a place upon the bench of the Supreme 
Court, which he had declined. On the retirement of Chief 
Justice Shaw, in 1860, he was offered by Governor Banks 
the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
Massachusetts. This he was compelled to decline by 
reason of his slender health and his incapacity for the con- 
tinuous and severe labor which the duties of the judges of 
that court require. This fact is stated by Gov. Banks in 
his farewell address. 

Judge Allen said to the late Judge Foster : — "At my 
age and in my state of health it is not to be thought of. 
It might have been different once, yet few know how 
much physical weakness I have had to contend with 
through life, and how much has been attributed to indo- 
lence in me which was caused by the necessity of nursing 
my health." 

Mr. Allen held the office of Chief Justice of the Supe- 
rior Court until the infirmities of old age came upon him. 
But there were a few terms of the court where, in sunnning 
up to the jury the evidence upon the facts, he repeated 
himself in a manner that showed the impairment of his 
faculties ; but even then his statement of the legal princi- 
ples applicable to the case showed his accustomed clearness, 
vigor and soundness of judgment. 

While he was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas he 



12 

presided at several trials of great importance. In the 
Wyman trial already referred to, his charge won the com- 
mendation of the able members of the Bar who listened to 
it, including Mr. Webster himself, for its great ability. 
The charge of the Judge was universally conceded to be 
not a whit behind the argument of Webster in grasp and 
completeness. He also presided in a cause which was tried 
at Dedham, growing out of the Dorr Rebellion, in which 
Rufus Choate and Mr. Whipple of Rhode Island were the 
})rincipal counsel. Some very intricate questions arose in 
the case, and the Judge's rulings were watched with gi-eat 
care. When one of them was made, the venerable Judge 
Putnam, who was present as a spectator, shook his head in 
dissent ; but at the recess went to the Judge and told him 
he was right. Chief Justice Spencer of New York, who 
read the report of the trial, wrote to the Judge an approv- 
ing and complimentary letter. 

During; Judo;e Allen's service as Chief Justice of the 
Superior Court, a fugitive slave who had made his escape 
from a New Orleans vessel, was pursued by the master of 
the vessel and seized just as he was landing, and taken 
back to slavery. The indignation of tlie people was 
deeply stirred. The captain of the vessel was arrested 
subsequently and brought to trial before Judge Allen. A 
question, then not very well settled, arose as to whether 
the act was committed within the jurisdiction of the Com- 
monwealth. The people heard with great satisfaction that 
the kidnapper was to be brought to trial before a court 
presided over l)y the great abolitionist. But the .Judge 
held the s(;ales with absolute impartiality. He taught the 
whole people of the country that even a slave-catcher 
could not fail in his reliance on the justice of Massachu- 
setts ; and that her indignation against what she deemed 
the worst of outrages, the kidnapping of a human being, 
could not swerve her from her obedience to law. The 
man was acquittetl, by reason of the ruling of the Court 



13 

that the offence was not committed within the body of the 
county. 

Judge Allen's influence over men seemed, like that of 
Alexander Hamilton, to be greater in proportion to the 
ability of the man with whom he dealt. Great as was his 
power over juries and over popular assemblies, it was 
greater over judges and courts. He was an admirable 
negotiator. The extent of his service in the negotiation 
of the Ashburton Treaty of 1842 will never be fully 
known. It rests only on tradition and on the weighty 
evidence of Mr. Webster. There was probably never a 
subject in regard to which the national feeling of the 
American people was more deeply excited than the contro- 
versy with Great Britain concerning our northeastern 
boundary. In 1842 the feeling engendered by the War 
of the Revolution and the War of 1812 had not grown 
cold. Great Britain was regarded as our natural and hered- 
itary foe. The tone of her press, the utterances of her 
public men and the criticism of her literary journals tended 
to stimulate and exasperate this feeling. The lessons of 
two Avars had not taught her to treat us with respect. 
The contempt which, the Spanish proverb says, pierces the 
shell of the tortoise, she poured out abundantly upon 
nerves always unduly sensitive to the opinion of other 
nations. The territory which was in dispute belonged 
wholly to Massachusetts until the separation of Maine in 
1820, and consisted very largely of unsettled lands Avhich 
had been divided between Massachusetts and Maine, and 
were still largely owned by the former state, subject to 
the local jurisdiction of Maine. Every effort to settle 
this controversy, which had been the subject of negotia- 
tion almost ever since the peace of 1783, had but increased 
the diflficulties with which it was beset, by exhausting the 
expedients both of diplomacy and arbitration. Mr. 
Webster undertook the settlement of this question, with 
others Avhich had caused great irritation in the two coun- 



14 

tries, and probably regarded its solution as, with scarcely 
an exception, the most important public service of his life. 
The difficulty of the negotiation was increased by the fact 
that any treaty which should be made would require the 
assent of a two-thirds majority of the Senate. So that 
the political opponents of the administration must be wil- 
ling, for patriotic reasons, to abandon the temptation of 
assailing it with the charge of having unduly surrendered 
the rights of this country to its ancient and hated rival, if 
the treaty contained anything of concession or compro- 
mise. It was quite clear that no treaty could pass the 
Senate without the consent of Maine and Massachusetts. 
The former state was politically opposed to Mr. Webster. 
His first step was to invite the co-operation of the two 
states immediately concerned, to request them to appoint 
agents to take part in the negotiation and to assure them 
"that no line of boundary should be agreed to without 
their consent, and without their consent, also, to all the 
conditions and stipulations of the treaty respectino- the 
boundary." To this the two states agreed. But they 
further stipulated that their consent should only be o-iven 
in case the agents of both states were unanimous. Maine 
appointed as commissioners Edward Kavanagh, Edward 
Kent, William P. Preble and John Otis. Massachusetts 
appointed Abbott Lawrence, John Mills and Charles Allen. 
It is well known that to Judge Allen's influence was 
very largely due the success of the treaty. He went care- 
fully over the matter with Gen. Scott. He gave the most 
thorough study to the whole question, especially to the 
matter of the military strength of the frontier as it would 
be left by the compromise line which was adopted. He 
became satisfied that whatever might be the title of Massa- 
chusetts to the lands held by Great Britain under the 
treaty, or whatever the right of the United States to hold 
them as against Great Britain, that the country and the 
state obtained far more than an equivalent, and that it was 



15 

especially for the interest of Massachusetts as a great 
commercial state that this irritating question should be 
forever put at rest and that our peaceful intercourse with 
Great Britain should be uninterrupted. It was well un- 
derstood at the time that to Judge Allen's great influence 
was largely due the unanimous action of his associates, 
the commissioners of the two states. Mr. Webster him- 
self bore the strongest testimony to this fact. Besides 
other instances of it, he met Judge Allen's brother, the 
Rev. George Allen, a short time after the treaty had been 
ratified, and spoke of his great obligation to his brother, 
and added, with great emphasis, "Your brother is a great 
arranger of men." 

The portion of Mr. Allen's public life upon which his 
title to the gratitude of his countrymen chiefly rests began 
with the movement for the annexation of Texas, during 
the presidency of John Tyler. The avowed and the direct 
object of this annexation was to prevent the abolition of 
slavery in the vast territory of Texas itself, which would 
else become free. The ultimate object was to give the 
control of the government to the South ; to make slave 
states of the territory between the Mississippi and the 
Pacific, to impress indelibly upon the United States the 
character which Macaulay attributed to her in 1845 : — 
" That nation is the champion and upholder of slavery. 
They seek to extend slavery with more energy than was 
ever exerted by any other nation to diffuse civilization." 

Up to this time Mr. Allen had been content with the 
duties which came to him as a leading member of his 
profession and a leading citizen of this important 
community. He was fond of social and family life. 
His profession, in which he was easily the leader in 
Worcester County, gave him an income sufficient to 
support his family and indulge his frugal tastes. The 
highest places on the bench of his state were open to him. 
But the kinsman of Sam Adams could not be indifferent 



16 

to the momentous issues which were at stake in the coming 
conflict with the slave power. Mr. Allen issued a call for 
a convention in Worcester County in the autumn of 1844. 
This was followed by the state convention called under the 
advice of Mr. Webster, held at Faneuil Hall, on the 29th 
day of January, 1845. 

The annexation of Texas and the war with Mexico are 
wonderful examples among those so numerous in our his- 
tory where the God who is on the side of Freedom has 
graciously turned the evil purposes of men to the accom- 
plishment of his will. During the period which followed 
the administration of Andrew Jackson the statesmen of 
the South became alarmed for the power which that section 
had wielded in the government, with the brief exception 
of the administration of John Adams and that of his son, 
from the beginning. It had been an unequal contest 
between the great skill as politicians of the Southerners 
and the strength and progress which free institutions had 
brouffht to the North. Mr. Calhoun and his associates 
proposed to turn the scale in favor of the South by the 
addition of Texas. Some of them doubtless contemplated 
even at that day the disruption of the Union and a slavehold- 
ing empire whose northern boundary should be Mason and 
Dixon's line, which should extend from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, should include Cuba and a large portion, if not the 
whole, of the territory of Mexico. Mr. Van Buren, who had 
never failed l)efore in suliserviency to the slave power, 
refused to become a party to the plan. John Tyler, who 
had been placed upon the ticket with General Harrison 
to conciliate the friends of Mr. Clay in Virginia, was 
thoroughly devoted to this scheme for strengthening and 
extending slavery. 

Texas declared her independence during the presidency 
of Andrew Jackson. In the last Congress of President 
Jackson's administration an appropriation was made and 
authority given to enable him to establish dii)lomatic rela- 



17 

tions with TeXcas when, in his judgment, the proper time 
had come. This measure was supported by representa- 
tives of both parties and both sections, including Mr. 
"Webster. President Jackson, with what to many people 
seemed undue haste, instantly acted upon the authority 
and recognized the independence of Texas. This recog- 
nition was followed by an overture from Texas for 
admission to the Union durins: the administration of Mr. 
Van Buren. Mr. Van Buren rejected the overture, in 
which he was supported by Mr. Benton and other leading 
Southern Democrats. But Van Buren forever forfeited 
the confidence of the mass of the slaveholders thereb3^ 
Mr. Weljster, in his great speech at Niblo's Garden, early 
in the year 1837, took very strong ground against the 
admission of Texas, claiming that the admission of a 
foreiirn state to our Union was not within the constitu- 
tional power of the government ; and, further, that while 
he proposed to sustain to their fullest extent the existing 
constitutional provisions which favored slaverj^ he would 
not submit to extending them beyond the original territory 
of the Union and thereby disturbing the relations of the 
different parts of the country to each other. The opposi- 
tion of the Democratic president and the great Whig 
statesman seemed for a time to put an end to the project. 
Texas withdrew her offer and seemed to be intent on 
establishing herself as a separate nation. The question 
was scarcely heard of in the great campaign of 1840. 
But the death of General Harrison brought John Tyler 
into the chair and gave the slave power its opportunity. 
When President Tyler abandoned the fiscal policy of his 
party the members of his cabinet resigned, except Mr. 
Webster, who remained until the Ashburton Treaty with 
Great Britain was completed. But, while his friendlj' 
relations with President Tyler were unbroken, Mr. Web- 
ster was made to feel in many ways that his presence at 
the council table was unwelcome. He accordingly resigned 



18 

his seat in the cabinet and was succeeded, first by Mr. 
Grimke, then by Mr. Upshur, who, soon after, gave 
place to Mr. Calhoun. The project of Texas annexation 
was thereafter vigorously pressed to its consummation. 
Mr. Calhoun negotiated the treaty with Texas, providing 
for its coming as a state into the Union, which was 
rejected by the Senate, for want of the two-thirds vote 
required by the Constitution. The issue was presented to 
the people of the United States in the presidential cam- 
paign of 1844, and was decided by the election of James 
K. Polk. Mr. Clay, although opposed to the annexation of 
Texas under the circumstances then existing, tried to con- 
ciliate the slaveholders by a statement that, under some cir- 
cumstances, he should have personally no objection to the 
measure. He failed to gain any Southern friends of 
Texas, and lost the confidence of many anti-slavery men 
at the North, whose vote, given to James G. Birney, cost 
Mr. Clay the State of New York, and with it the election. 

At the short session of 1844-5, at the close of President 
Tyler's administration, and after the election of Mr. Polk, 
a joint resolution was adopted, giving the consent of Con- 
gress to the erection of a new state from the territory of 
Texas, on certain conditions therein set forth, in order that 
the same might be admitted into the Union ; and to tlic 
admission of such state whenever the time and conditions 
of such admission and of the cession to the United States 
of the remaining territory of Texas should be agreed 
upon by the two governments. 

Texas complied with the conditions in the interval, and 
Congress passed a joint resolution in December, 1845, 
declaring the conditions complied with and formally ad- 
mitting Texas as a state. After the passage of the first 
resolution above-named a division grew up in the Whig 
party between those persons who desired to resist the 
admission of Texas to the end, and who claimed that this 
action of Congress could and ought to be repealed ; and 



19 

those who, either because they considered further agitation 
useless, or because they thought that the business interests 
of the North required the subject to be dropped, or because 
the gratification of their personal ambitions seemed to them 
dependent upon Southern favor, were for treating the 
question as settled. This latter class contained some of 
the best and wisest of the Whig statesmen of Massachu- 
setts, who dreaded and deprecated the formation upon this 
issue of a sectional party, and who thought the best means 
of resisting the further aggression of slavery was to retain 
their political association with the Whigs of the South. 
Conspicuous among these were Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Edward 
Everett, Governor Lincoln and Mr. Abbott Lawrence, to 
neither of whom will any man, whatever may have been 
the judgment of contemporary passion, now impute any 
lack of patriotism or want of sincerity in his resistance to 
the annexation of Texas. The two divisions of the Whis 
party in Massachusetts were called by names suggested b}^ 
Mr. E. R. Hoar in a speech in the Massachusetts Senate : 
"Conscience Whigs" and "Cotton Whigs." Judge Allen 
threw himself into the contest with all his might, and was, 
from that time until he took his seat upon the bench in 
1858, deemed by a large portion of the men who were of 
his way of thinking their wisest, bravest and ablest leader. 
Mr. Webster was, for a time, expected to unite with the 
Conscience Whigs. He had either originally suggested, 
or at any rate earnestly united in the call for a convention 
of the people of Massachusetts, to be held in Faneuil Hall 
on the 29th of January, 1845, to express her unconquera- 
ble repugnance to the admission of Texas. He seemed to 
be inspired with a purpose to resist to the end, Avith all 
his might, the annexation of Texas, which he regarded as 
a violation of the Constitution and as designed to secure 
the perpetual supremacy of the slaveholding interest in 
this country. He undertook to prepare for the convention 
an address to the people of Massachusetts. He met 



20 

Charles Allen and Stephen C. Phillips at his office, I think, 
on Sunday, the 26th day of January. I have heard Judge 
Allen himself relate the story, but I will not be absolutely 
certain as to the day. He walked backward and forward 
in his office dictating to them the portion of the pamphlet 
containing the constitutional argument which terminates at 
[laragraph second on the tenth page. "It affirms to you," 
to quote Mr. Webster's own language, " that there is no 
constitutional power in any branch of the government, or 
in all the branches of the government, to annex a foreign 
state to this Union." It will require no external testimony 
to convince any man who reads them that these pages are 
the work of Mr. Webster. Judge Allen and Mr. Phillips 
alternately used the pen, while Mr. Webster dictated. 
When this branch of the argument was completed Mr. 
Webster looked at his watch, said it was time to go to 
dinner, and made an appointment for them to continue 
their work at the same place at a fixed hour the next day. 
The next day Mr. Webster did not appear and nothing 
was heard of him. Mr. Allen and Mr. Phillips waited 
until late in the afternoon when they were informed, to 
their dismay, that Mr. Webster had taken a train for New 
York, — the train then left Boston at half-past five in the 
afternoon, connecting? with the NorAvich boat. Judee 
Allen was compelled to finish the address himself, to have 
it ready for the convention on Wednesday. The part 
composed by him begins at the place above indicated on 
page ten, and constitutes the rest of the pamphlet. It is 
praise enough, but not too much, to say of the Avork of 
Judge Allen that it is entirely worthy of its companionship, 
and that a casual reader, not informed of the history of 
the production, would not be likely to discover that the 
address was not the work of a single hand. 

It is said that on that Monday a large pecuniar}^ contri- 
bution for Mr. Webster was raised among the business 
men of Boston. Judge Allen believed that the indication 



21 

of the strength of the sentiment among this class of per- 
sons of unwillingness that there should be further agitation 
of the Texas question and further disturbance of harmoni- 
ous relations between the North and the South caused this 
sudden change of purpose in the mind of Mr. Webster. 

I do not for a moment mean to imply that Mr. Webster 
could be corrupted by money. I am satisfied, from a most 
careful and conscientious study, extending over many 
years, of his great career, that he was actuated by the 
loftiest patriotism in the action in his last years which, in 
common with so many of his countrymen, I disapproved 
at the time and disapprove now. 

I do not know what caused his sudden change of pur- 
pose in those two days. But I conjecture that there came 
to his knowledge in the interval the fact that so many of his 
life-long friends antl supporters among the business men of 
Boston were ajjainst further resistance to the annexation 
of Texas, and he concluded that resistance was hopeless 
and that it was not worth while to butt his head against a 
wall, by mere ineffective and barren remonstrance. 

It would have been vastly better if Mr. Webster had 
absolutel}^ refused such pecuniary contributions while he 
was in public life. His callousness upon that subject, as 
was his indifference to debt, and his profuseness of per- 
sonal expenditure, was a blot on his otherwise illustrious 
character. But we may say this and at the same time 
acquit him of the supreme and unpardonable infamy of 
corruption. Mr. Webster's fame is among the great 
treasures of the Republic. Let him be judged by his 
whole career, and not alone by what may seem his errors 
of judgment in one supreme, anxious and dangerous time. 

It is undoubtedly true that Mr. Webster, l)y his failure 
to attend the Anti-Texas Convention on the following 
Wednesday, or to express any further his sympathy with 
the sentiment which was so deeply felt by the anti-slavery 
people of Massachusetts, did much to weaken his hold on 



22 

their affection and confidence. When, at the Free Soil 
Convention at Worcester, in 1848, one of the resolutions 
called upon Daniel Webster, in the name of Massachusetts, 
to take the action in behalf of freedom in the territories 
" to which his great heart and mind should lead him," it was 
received by numerous shouts of "No, no," and its passage 
was secured with great difficulty. Mr. Allen's cordial 
relations with Mr. Webster were never renewed. 

From the time of the consummation of the annexation 
of Texas it was apparent to all thoughtful men that it was 
the purpose of the slave power to occupy all that remained 
of the territory of the United States, together with what 
might be wrested from Mexico, and to wrest the Island of 
Cuba from Spain, and to bring all this territory into the 
Union of the States when the time should come. To 
apprise the people of the North of this purpose, to resist 
it and to defeat it, l)ecame thenceforth the paramount 
object of the political life of Charles Allen and of the 
men who sympathized with him. The Whig part}' of the 
North professed to be opposed to the extension of slavery. 
It was committed to that policy by the resolutions of its 
conventions, both state and local, in nearly all the Northern 
States. But man}' of its leaders were dependent on 
Southern favor for the gratification of their ambition in 
the future. Large numbers of Whigs, especially those 
engaged in manufactures and in mercantile pursuits, con- 
sidered that the prosperity of the North in its business 
depended on maintaining undisturbed relations with the 
South. In addition to all this, there were large portions 
of the North, including southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
large portions of Pennsylvania and of New Jersey, where 
the Negro was held in little higher estimation than at the 
South, and where he was believed, to quote a phrase which 
afterward Ijecame a proverb, " to have no rights which the 
white man was bound to respect." The party spirit, too, 
led zealous Whig politicians to be unwilling to insist upon 



23 

a doctrine which must necessarily split the party in twain 
at Mason and Dixon's line. There were others who were 
conscientious in their disapprobation of slavery and who 
were unwilling that it should be extended, but who thought 
that Northern opposition only served to inflame Southern 
aggression, which, if the discussion of the question should 
be dismissed from politics for a time, would die out of 
itself. And to this number were added all the conserva- 
tive, timid, quiet and amiable persons Avho disliked nothing 
so much as strife or agitation. Mr. Allen, however, 
found a good many associates and friends, many of whom 
afterward became distinguished in politics or letters. 
Each of them was a man who was competent to be the 
leader of a great cause. 

The division in the Whig party, which began after the 
annexation of Texas, was widened by the differences 
growing out of the war with Mexico. This was disap- 
proved by the Whigs of Massachusetts with scarcely an 
exception. But there was a very great difference in the 
degree and manner of their disapproval. Many of them 
wei'e exceedingly unwilling to take a position in regard to 
that war, which was popular throughout the country, which 
would bring upon them the fate which attended the posi- 
tion of the Federalists of 1812. 

The measure providing supplies for the army in Mexico 
which had passed Congress had the preamble : "Whereas war 
exists by the act of Mexico." Against this preamble four- 
teen Whigs voted. But others, including Mr. Winthrop of 
Massachusetts, voted for the preamble, in order not to be 
put in the attitude of objecting to the supplies. For this 
the}^ were bitterly denounced, and the division between 
them and the Conscience Whigs was intensified. Dr. 
Palfrey, the Whig representative in Congress from the 
Middlesex District, refused, in the next Congress, to vote 
for Mr. Winthrop, the Whig candidate for Speaker ; and a 
band of Conscience Whigs voted against Mr, Winthrop 



24 

when he was chosen Representative from the Boston 
District. They first nominated Charles Sumner as Mr. 
Winthrop's opponent. Mr. Sumner declined, and Dr. 
Samuel G. Howe was nominated in his place. Some of 
the Whigs, including Mr. Webster and Senator Roger S. 
Baldwin of Connecticut, resisted the treaty at the close of 
the Mexican War, foreseeing that the strife between Free- 
dom and Slavery for the territory which it accjuired from 
Mexico would lead to disruption of the Whig party and 
to a sectional strife throughout the country. 

The question whether a great public evil should be cor- 
rected by the old English and American process of action 
by political parties, or by an action which should be not 
only independent of party obligations, but of the primal 
obligation of citizenship to obey the will of the country 
as expressed by its majority, until that majorit}^ could be 
persuaded to change, presented itself to the men who acted 
under the lead of Charles Allen and Charles Sumner. 
They rejected Mr. Garrison's solution of that question and 
accepted Mr. Allen's. The result is full of instruction. 

Mr. Garrison and his followers declared the Constitution 
a " covenant with death and a league with hell," and the 
country an instrument of oppression, and refused to have 
any connection with either. Mr. Allen and Mr. Sumner, 
on the other hand, said : " We will use the powers of the 
Constitution to correct the mistakes of the Constitution. 
We will appeal to the people who made the Constitution, 
and to the Country which is behind the Constitution. 
Notwithstanding the present attitude of the majority, we 
will place the Country and the Constitution on the side of 
Freedom." What was the result? Garrison and Phillips 
attacked the Republican party as severely and as bitterly 
as they had attacked the slaveholders. In thirty years 
of agitation they had made no progress whatever. They 
began in 1830. The period from 1880 to 1850 witnessed 
a scries of victories for slavery. In 1858 Wendell 



25 

Phillips describes England, whose conduct in 1834 in 
abolishing slaveiy in the West Indies had inspired him 
with so much enthusiasm, as having a pro-slavery govern- 
ment, and as ready to reestablish the slave trade. He 
declares that we are about to admit Kansas as a slave 
State, to seize Culm and what remains of Mexico ; that the 
slave-master may travel through the North with his slave 
without setting him free. He denounces the judges and 
the churches alike as given over to the domination of 
slavery. He says that, when he dies, he hopes some one 
will give him a piece of marble large enough to write on 
it — "Infidel" at the top and "Traitor" at the bottom. 

Now, what was done by the politician? Some of us 
met at Worcester, Massachusetts, on the 28th of June, 
1848, to found a new party, devoted to arresting the 
future encroachments of the slave power, and to secure 
the freedom of the vast territory between the Mississippi 
and the Pacific. At Buffalo, in the same year, that party 
nominated its candidate for President. In that 3^ear it 
did not command a single vote in the electoral colleges and 
chose but three members of Congress. But it increased 
rapidly in numbers and political power. In eight years it 
carried a majority of the free states. In twelve years it 
elected its President and had a majority in both Houses of 
Congress. In sixteen years it had abolished slavery and 
had put down the Rebellion ; and in twenty years it had 
adopted the three gi'eat amendments to the Constitution 
which made every slave a freeman, every freeman a citizen, 
and every citizen a voter. 

The life of John Quincy Adams was drawing to a close. 
No man questioned the sincerity of Mr. Adams's hatred of 
the slave power. He hated slavery for its own sake, and 
there was no man more certain to return the hatred which 
the slave power felt toward him. But he earnestly desired 
the extension of our territory to the Pacific, and was quite 
willing to take the risks of conflict between freedom and 



26 

slavery for its possession. Witli the exception of Mr. 
Adams, the anti-slavery men among the Whig leaders were 
opposed to the acquisition of territory from Mexico. And 
some others, who were ready for any compromise, depre- 
cated the new acquisition as one to be fruitful of a strife 
which would endanger the national existence itself. But 
all opposition was without avail. The treaty of Guada- 
loupe Hidalgo was agreed upon by the representatives of the 
two governments and ratified by the Senate of the United 
States. Under it we acquired a vast territory of nearly 
50,000 square miles. From this time the division in the 
Whig party became irreconcilable. The Conscience Whigs 
attended the conventions of their party, secured the adop- 
tion of resolutions, both in those conventions and by the 
Legislature, committing the party to legislation to prevent 
the extension of slavery into the territories, and found 
organs among the Whig press. The party was not broken 
until the nomination of Gen. Taylor in 1848. Though very 
much dissatisfied with Mr. Webster, proba])ly the bulk of 
those who left the Whig party would have supported 
him if he had been the Whig candidate for the presidency. 
But the choice of Gen. Taylor, a Southerner and a large 
slaveholder, whose fame rested wholly on his achievements 
in a war undertaken for the extension of slavery, without 
any pledge or assurance of his own opposition to it, and, 
after letters written by him assured the South that it coukl 
depend upon him, made further support of the Whig 
party impossible to these men. The convention Avas called 
at Worcester on the 28th of June, 1848, where, for the 
first time, was inaugurated a party for the sole object of 
resisting the extension of slavery. The Liberty party, 
which had cast a few votes in the presidential election of 
1840, and which, in 1844, had turned the scale in New 
York, and so in the nation, against Mr. Clay, was willing 
to support the candidates of other parties who were per- 
sonally unexceptionable to them in this respect. But the 



27 

Free Soil party, of which the present Republican party is 
but the continuation under a change of name, determined 
that no person could receive its support for any national 
office who, himself, continued his association with either 
of the old political organizations. 

Charles Allen was chosen a delegate from the Worcester 
District to the Whig National Convention which met at 
Philadelphia, June 7th, 1848. It became manifest, as the 
time for holding that convention approached, that it was 
tlie plan of a large portion of the Whig party to make no 
declaration of a purpose to oppose the extension of slavery 
into the territories, and to nominate a candidate who 
should be uncommitted upon that subject, and who might 
be represented to the South as holding one opinion and to 
the North as holding another. While Mr. Webster's 
course had not been wholly satisfactory to the opponents 
of the extension of slavery, and while he had seemed to 
lack zeal in resisting the final consummation of the annexa- 
tion of Texas, yet his opposition to the extension of slavery 
had been many times earnestly and emphatically expressed. 
He would, doubtless, have received the united support of 
the Whig party at the North if he had been nominated. 
The Southern Whigs found their candidate in Zachary 
Taylor. His simple, manly and picturesque character 
had gained a strong hold on the popular heart. There 
were many Whigs, even in Massachusetts, who were 
uneasy under the somewhat dictatorial and imperious 
manner of Mr. Webster, and who did not expect to find 
much opportunity for the gratification of their own ambi- 
tions under an administration where he should control. 
Al)ove all, it was supposed that the popular enthusiasm for 
a successful soldier would be as powerful in the case of 
Taylor as it had been in the case of Andrew Jackson. 
Mr. Webster, whatever may have been the respect in 
which he was held by the great mass of the people, seems 
never to have been popular with the class of men who are 



28 

found in nominating conventions. The result was that 
Gen. Taylor received the nomination of the convention on 
the fourth ballot by a majority of more than sixty. A 
resolution was then introduced declaring: that Cono-ress 
had the power, and that it was its duty, to prevent the 
introduction and existence of slavery in any territory then 
possessed, or which might thereafter be acquired. This 
resolution was laid on the table amid a storm of derision. 
It was, however, hoped to conciliate Massachusetts by the 
nomination of Abbott Lawrence, who had been an earnest 
supporter of Gen. Taylor, and was understood to be on 
unfriendly terms with Mr. Webster, for the Vice-Presi- 
dency. A gentleman then rose, of slender figure and 
voice, who was unknown to the great majority of the 
convention, and who, till that time, had taken little part 
in its proceedings. It was Charles Allen of Massachusetts. 
He declared that the discipline of the South had again 
prevailed ; that the terms of union between the Whigs of 
the North and the Whigs of the South were the perpetual 
surrender by the former of the high places and powers of 
the Government to their Southern Confederates. "To 
these terms the Free States will no longer submit. The 
Whig party is here and this day dissolved. You have put 
one ounce too much on the strong back of Northern 
endurance. You have even presumed that the State which 
led in the first revolution for liberty will now desert that 
cause for the miserable boon of the Vice-Presidency. Sir, 
Massachusetts spurns the bribe." Mr. Allen's speech was 
received with a storm of indiofnation and derision. Tlie 
Whig party, which had just nominated a successful general 
and which looked forward to an assured victory in the 
coming campaign, never appeared, to an unthinking 
observer, so conscious of its strength and so certain of a 
long lease of power as at that moment. It was about to 
elect its candidate for the Presidency at the slight price of 
silence on the great (juestion of human liberty. Mr. 



20 

Allen's utterance seemed, to most men, like the raving of 
a fanatic. But in the next presidential election the Whig 
party, this gi'eat historic party, found itself able to com- 
mand a majority in but four states. Four ^^ears from the 
time of Mr. Allen's utterance, Daniel Webster, as he lay 
dying at Marshfield, said to the friend who was making 
his will, " The Whig candidate will obtain but one or two 
states ; and it is well ; as a national party the Whigs are 
ended." 

Mr. Allen came back to Massachusetts to appeal to the 
people of Worcester, and to lay in this city the foundation 
of the great party which came into power in 1861, and 
whose thirty years of power constitute the most brilliant 
and important period in all legislative history. The num- 
ber of voters to whom he could appeal for support with 
confidence was not very large in the beginning. But 
there Averc men in all parts of the Commonwealth with 
whom he had been in the habit of taking counsel since the 
division in the Whig party had grown up, and who came 
promptly to his side. The Free Soil party of Massachu- 
setts cast, in the presidential election of 1848, about 
thirty-seven thousand votes. But it included among its 
supporters almost every man in the Commonwealth old 
enough to take part in politics who has since acquired any 
considerable national reputation. Charles Sumner, who 
had become known to the public as an orator and scholar 
by three or four brilliant orations, was just at the thresh- 
old of his orreat career. Charles Francis Adams, who 
had served with distinction in each branch of the State 
Legislature, Ijrought to the cause his inflexible courage, 
his calm judgment, and the inspiration of his historic 
name. John A. AndreAv, then a young lawyer in Boston, 
afterward to become illustrious as the greatest war gov- 
ernor in the Union, devoted to the cause an eloquence 
stimulant and inspiring as a sermon of Paul. John G. 
Palfrey, then a Whig member of Congress from the 



30 

Middlesex District, discussed the great issue in speeches 
singularly adapted to reach the understanding and gratify 
the taste of the people of Massachusetts, and in a series 
of essays whose vigor and compactness Junius might have 
envied, and with a moral power which Junius could never 
have reached. Anson Burlingame, afterward minister to 
China and envoy from China to the civilized nations of the 
world, then in early 3^outh, inspired his hearers with his 
lofty trumpet-call. Samuel G. Howe, famous in both 
hemispheres by his knightly service in the cause of Greek 
independence, famous also by his philanthropic work in 
behalf of the insane and the blind, brought his great 
influence to the new })arty. Henry Wilson, a mechanic, 
whose earl}' training had been that of the shoemaker's shop, 
but Avho understood the path by which to reach the con- 
science and understanding of the workingmen of Massa- 
chusetts better than any other man, had been also a 
delegate to the convention at Philadelphia, and had united 
with Judije Allen in denunciation of its surrender of 
liberty. Stephen C. Phillips, a highly respected merchant 
of Salem, and formerly a Whig representative from the 
Essex District, gave the weight of his influence in the 
same direction. Samuel Hoar, who had been driven 
from South Carolina when he attempted to argue the 
case for the im})risoned colored seamen of Massachusetts 
before the courts of the United States, one of the most 
distinguished lawyers of the Massachusetts Bar, whom 
Chief-Justice Shaw declared, at a gathering of the Essex 
Bar, the most powerful advocate before juries in Massa- 
chusetts, came from his retirement in his old age to give 
his service in the same cause. He headed the call for the 
first Free Soil convention, held at Worcester on the 28th 
of June, which was prepared by his son, E. R. Hoar, 
afterward Judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts 
and Attorney-General of the United States, and member 
of the Joint High Commission which framed the Treaty 



31 

of Washington. Richard H. Dana, master of an exquisite 
English style, an advocate who used to encounter Rufus 
Choate on equal terms, threw himself into the cause with 
all the ardor of his soul. On the Connecticut River, 
George Ashmun, the most powerful of the Whig cham- 
pions in Western Massachusetts, found more than his 
match in Erastus Hopkins. 

William Claflin, afterward Speaker, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor and Governor in Massachusetts, member of the 
National House of Representatives, and chairman of the 
Repulilican National Committee, was then in early youth. 
But he had already gained a competent fortune by his 
])usiness sagacity. He brought to the cause his sound 
judgment, his Avarm and affectionate heart and his liberal 
hand. He was then, as he has ever since been, identified 
Avith every good and generous cause. His staunch friend- 
ship was then, as it has ever since been, the delight and 
comfort of the champions of Freedom in strife and 
oblo(]iuy. 

Each of these men would have been amply fitted in all 
respects for the leader of a great party in state or nation. 
Each of them could have defended any cause in which he 
was a believer, by whatever champion assailed. They had 
also their allies and associates among the representatives of 
the press. Among these were Joseph T. Buckingham of 
the Boston Courier, then the head of the editorial frater- 
nity in Massachusetts ; John Milton Earle, the veteran 
editor of the Worcester Spy; William S. Robinson, after- 
ward so widely known as "Warrington," whose wit and 
keen logic will cause his name to be long preserved among 
the classics of American literature. 

Besides these more conspicuous leaders, there was to be 
found in almost every town and village in Massachusetts 
some man eminent among his neighbors for purity of life, 
for philanthropy and for large intelligence, who was ready 
to join the new party. The glowing hopes and dreams 



32 

and aspirations of youth were inspirited by the muse of 
Whittier and Longfellow and Lowell and Bryant. The 
cause of free labor appealed to the strongest sympathies 
of the mechanics of Essex and the skilled laborers of 
Worcester : — 

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive ; 

But to be young was Heaven. 

A meeting was called to hear Judge Allen's report at the 
City Hall in Worcester. There was doubt as to his recep- 
tion, and it was predicted that he could not gain an 
audience. Some difficulty was experienced in finding any 
man of prominence to preside ; but this office was under- 
taken by Albert Tolman, one of the most respected 
mechanics of the city. The hall was thronged long before 
Judge Allen came upon the platform. Many persons were 
unable to get admission. From the beginning to the end 
Judge Allen had the sympathy of the vast audience. The 
Judge declared that he had been charged by his constitu- 
ents to vote for a person as candidate for President who 
should 1)6 in favor of preserving the territories of the 
United States from the stain of slavery. That the con- 
vention which sent him to Philadelphia Avell knew his 
sentiments, and would have sent some other man as their 
delegate if they intended to put forth principles upon 
which thev did not mean to stand and abide. He sketched 
the history of slavery in the country ; the manner in 
Avhich it had extended and grown strong. He showed 
that the Whigs of the North were pledged against its 
further extension. He showed that Gen. Taylor had 
declared that if he were elected to the presidential office 
he must go untrammelled by party pledges of any character, 
and must not be brought forward as the candidate of any 
party, or considered as the exponent of any party doc- 
trines. Gen. Taylor, therefore, refusing to be the can- 
didate of a party or the exponent of its doctrines, had no 
claim ui)on his allegiance or that of his auditors as Whigs. 



33 

He showed further that Gen. Ta^^or's Southern neighbors, 
Avho knew him best, avowed that he sympathized with 
them on the subject of the Wilmot Proviso and what they 
called Southern rifyhts. He uttered his bold challeno;e to 
the leading Whigs in Worcester Countj^ — Gov. Lincoln 
and Gov. Davis. As the assembly was al)out to disperse, 
the Rev. George Allen, a brother of the Judge, who had 
come in late from a religious meeting, made his way to 
the platform and moved the following resolution, which Avas 
[)assed amid great enthusiasm. It was adopted by nearly 
every Free Soil meeting held that year in Massachusetts 
and rang throuo;h the countrv :—" Resolved, that Massa- 
chusetts wears no chains, and spurns all l)ribes. That she 
goes- now and will ever go for Free Soil and Free Men, 
for Free Lips and a Free Press, for a Free Land and a 
Free World." That meeting was the inaug-uration of a 
political party which made opposition to the further 
extension of slavery its cardinal principle. The old 
Liberty party differed from the Free Soil party in that its 
members were willing to support men belonging to other 
political organizations if they had confidence in the sin- 
cerity of the devotion of the individual candidate to their 
principles. But the Free Soil party announced, and in no 
other way could any party e^xpect permanent success in 
state or nation, that alliance with any other political 
organization, or the support of any other political candi- 
dates than their own, was sufficient reason for rejecting 
any candidate for office, however personally acceptable. 
The transformation of the Free Soil party into the Repub- 
lican, which took place six years later, was but a change 
of name. 

Mr. Allen devoted himself from that time forward to 
the close of the campaign to the task of convincing the 
people of Worcester County. It was no slight burden he 
had undertaken. Worcester County had contended with 

Genesee County, N. Y., Lancaster County, Pa., and 
3 



34 

Aslitalmla County, Ohio, for the glory of being the banner 
Whio; county in the United States. She was interested in 
the success of Whig principles. Her manufactures Avere 
rising into importance. Factories were building on every 
stream. Her only city was devoted to manufactures in 
great variety. Her people were proud of the policies 
which had given to Massachusetts the name of the model 
commonwealth. With the exception of Mr. Webster, 
her venerated citizens, John Davis and Levi Lincoln, were 
the most eminent Whigs in Massachusetts. 

Gov. Davis had a large national fame and was under- 
stood to have favored the selection of Gen. Taylor. At 
the same time, his course hitherto had commended him to 
the anti-slavery sentiment of the Commonwealth. »Levi 
Lincoln, who held the office of Governor of Massachusetts 
longer than any other person before or since, Avas a man 
of matchless executive energy, of high social position, of 
wide family connection, and of unsullied character. He 
had been chosen Governor of Massachusetts by the consent 
of both political parties. He had inherited from his 
father the political opinions and the intimate personal 
friendship of Jefferson. Yet he had always had the full 
confidence of the Federal and Whig leaders. When Mr. 
Wel)ster Avas first chosen to the United States Senate he 
declined to be considered as a candidate until he had been 
first informed, on Mr. Lincoln's oAvn authority, that he 
Avould not accept the place ; an acceptance Avhich had been 
urged upon him by Mr. Mills, the retiring senator, and 
by the leaders of the dominant party in Massachusetts all 
over the Common Avealth, Avith scarcely an exception: 
These two men thrcAV themselves into the sup})ort of 
Taylor, inspired not only by the conviction that Gen. 
Taylor's election Avould be for the benefit of the Avhole 
country, but also because they saAv that their oAvn politi- 
cal dominion and influence Avere involved in the same 
issue. 



35 

These men had supporters both on the hustings and in 
the press, from a conflict with whom any common man 
might well shrink. The National u^gis was then under 
the charofe of Alexander H. Bullock, afterward Governor 
of the Commonwealth, and one of the most brilliant 
orators of his day. He was aided hy the keen and caustic 
pen of Edward W. Lincoln, and by John C. B. Davis, 
afterward an eminent lawyer and Minister to Germany. 
Benjamin F. Thomas, who succeeded Judge Allen as the 
leader of the Worcester bar, the darling of the younger 
men of his generation, — a man of whom it has been said, 
as before him was said of Charles James Fox, that his 
intellect was all feeling and his feeling all intellect, — who 
had been an original supporter of Gen. Ta3dor, advocated 
his election with his fervid and persuasive eloquence. 
Emory Washburn, perhaps the best-beloved citizen of 
Worcester County, was on the same side. The quarrel 
was not like that of an ordinary party contest. It 
extended into the social life of the state and county. 
There was hardly a family moving in what was called 
good society that was not upon the Whig side. Charles 
Hudson, the popular and esteemed representative from 
the Worcester District, the highest authority in his time 
upon the finances of the country, and especially upon the 
protective tariff, after some hesitation, had given his 
support to the nomination of Gen. Taylor. 

Yet Charles Allen, from the beginning, held his own 
against all odds. He was nominated for Congress very 
unich against his oAvn will, and l^ecause no other man 
could be found in the district on his side of sufficient 
prominence to be made a candidate. The Free Soil party 
swept the county by a large majority, carrying the City of 
Worcester and every one of the fifty-two towns, with four 
exceptions. The Judge was triumphantly elected to Con- 
gress. From that time Worcester County never wavered 
or faltered in the support of freedom, till the three great 



36 

amendments were formally established in the Constitution 
of the United States itself. 

Judge Allen served in the Congress of the United States 
for two terms, when his constituents reluctantly yielded 
to his desire to withdraw from that service. His health 
was always delicate. The climate of Washington was 
extremely unfavorable to him. During his teini of 
service he had many slight illnesses. He also was 
brought to the point of death by a lung fever. The phy- 
sicians had no hope that he would live but a few hours, 
and requested Mr. Giddings, who was his intimate friend, 
to say to him that if he had any disposition to make of 
his worldly affairs it should be done without delay, as he 
had but a very short time to live. The Judge understood 
his own case better than the doctors. As Giddings leaned 
over the sick-bed and made the solemn and appalling 
communication, the patient replied, using all his strength, 
in a just audible whisper, "We will see about that." To 
the mortification, if not the disappointment, of the doc- 
tors, he recovered. 

The question has been discussed a good deal of late, to 
what men the rescue of our vast Western territory from 
slavery and the overthrow of slavery itself are most 
largely due. The admirers of Mr. Garrison and the sur- 
vivors of the little band who were distinguished by the 
name of Abolitionists, of whom he was the acknowledged 
leader, claim for him and for those who thought with him 
the chief merit in this mighty revolution. I would not, 
if I could, take a single laurel from the honored brow of 
William Lloyd Garrison. I stated deliberately my opinion 
of him when, in presenting for the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts the statues of John Winthrop and Samuel 
Adams to the United States, for the memorial chamber in 
the Capitol, I spoke of the great men among whom her 
choice was made in selecting the two foremost names 



37 

amona: her national benefactors. I then used this Ian- 
guage : — 

" Of the great lovers of their race, whose pure fame is gained 
by unselfish devotion of their lives to lessening suffering or 
reforming vice, Massaclmsetts has furnished conspicuous exam- 
ples. Among these great benefactors who have now gone to 
their reward it is hard to determine the palm of excellence. 

"To the labors of Horace Mann is due the excellence of the 
common schools in America, without which liberty must perish, 
despite of constitution or statute. 

"If an archangel should come down from Heaven among 
men, I cannot conceive that he could give utterance to a loftier 
virtue or clothe his message in more fitting phrase than are found 
in the pure eloquence in which Channing arraigned slavery, that 
giant crime of all ages, before the bar of public opinion, and 
held up the selfish ambition of Napoleon to the condemnation of 
mankind. ' Never before,' says the eulogist of Channing, 'in 
the name of humanity and freedom, was grand offender arraigned 
by such a voice. The sentence of degradation which Channing 
has passed, confirmed by coming generations, will darken the 
fame of the warrior more than any defeat of his armies, or 
compelled abdication of his power.' 

" Dr. Howe, whose youthful service in the War for the Inde- 
pendence of Greece, recalling the stories of knight-errantry, has 
endeared his name to two hemispheres, is yet better known by 
what he has done for those unfortunate classes of our fellowmen 
whom God has deprived of intellect or of sense. He gave eyes 
to the fingers of the blind ; he taught the deaf and dumb articu- 
late speech ; waked the slumbering intellect in the darkened soul 
of the idiot; brought comfort, quiet, hope, courage, to the 
wretched cell of the insane. 

"To each of these the people of Massachusetts have, in their 
own way, paid their tribute of honor and reverence. The statue 
of Horace Mann stands by the portal of the State House. The 
muse of Whittier and Holmes, the lips of our most distinguished 
living orators, the genius of his gifted wife, have united in a 
worthy memorial of Howe. The stately eloquence of Sumner, 
in his great oration at Cambridge, has built a monument to 
Channing more enduring than marble or granite ; but Channing's 



38 

published writings, eagerly read wherever the English language 
prevailed, are better than any monument. 

"Yet I believe Channing and Howe and Mann, were they 
living today, would themselves yield precedence to the constant 
and courageous heroism of him who said, ' I am in earnest ; I 
will not equivocate ; I will not retreat a single inch ; and I will 
be heard' ; whose fame — 

' Over his living head, like heaven, is bent 
An early and eternal monument.' " 

Of this estimate I have nothing to retract. But I can- 
not consent to honor Mr. Garrison at the expense of what 
is due to others. Mr. Garrison devoted his life to the 
cause of human freedom. In that cause he encountered 
hatred, obloquy and peril. He espoused the cause of the 
poor and downtrodden when it seemed almost hopeless to 
other men, inspired by a sublime and undoubting confi- 
dence in righteousness and the justice of God. He was 
a man- of absolute integrity and veracity. His appeals 
did much to create and strengthen the hatred of slavery in 
the American people, to whom he was as a conscience, 
brino-ino- everythino; to the standard of rectitude as it 
appeared to his eyes. But as we now look back upon his 
work we can see that he impaired his own usefulness by 
one supreme error in judgment. His only plan for the 
overthrow of slavery was the destruction of his country 
itself. If his counsel had been followed there would have 
been today at the South a great slaveholding empire, 
spreading over all the territory between the Mississippi 
and the Pacific, embracing Cuba and, perhaps, Mexico ; 
while the North would have been a feeble and distracted 
country ; or, perhaps, divided into many separate states, 
weak and contemptible among the nations of the earth. 
We cannot, therefore, while we assign to Garrison the 
highest place which belongs to a pure purpose and to an 
unselfish devotion, give to him, who as a counsellor and 
leader was always wrong in the method of accomplishing 



39 

his end, a meed of praise which we are to deny such 
leaders as Charles Allen and Charles Sumner, who, as we 
look back upon their lives, we now see to have been 
always right. Mr. Garrison was misled by a strict inter- 
pretation of the Constitution. He forgot that there was a 
country behind the Constitution which could amend it, 
which could overthrow it, which could construe it in favor 
of liberty, and the preservation of whose life was, if not 
the only, yet the best hope of liberty in this world. No 
lover of his race, no friend of the freedom of the black, 
can now look back upon the counsel of Charles Allen or 
the men who acted with him and wish that in any respect 
it had been otherwise. 

The causes which have been mentioned prevented Mr. 
Allen from taking a very active part on the floor of the 
House during his two terms of service in Washington. 
But he was regarded by the few anti-slavery men there as 
their Avisest and ablest counsellor. Mr. Julian of Indiana, 
who was himself one of the most earnest anti-slavery 
men in the public service, and who served with Mr. Allen 
during his whole time, has written his recollection of Mr. 
Allen's congressional career as follows : — 

Centreville, Indiana, 

Sept. 10th, 1870. 
Hon. Geo. F. Hoar: 

My Dear Sir, — 

Failing health and other hindrances have 
prevented an earlier response to your request, made some months 
ago, to give you my impressions of the late Judge Allen of your 
state. My first knowledge of him dates back as far as the 
summer of 1848, when I read his speech to his constituents, on 
his return from the Philadelphia Whig Convention which nomi- 
nated Gen. Taylor for the Presidency in June of that year. 
This speech, which was copied into several Western newspapers, 
was a telling one, and exercised a marked influence, especially 
upon those members of the Free Soil organization wlio enlisted 
from the ranks of the Whigs. I first met Judge Alien in 



40 

December, 1849, as a fellow-member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives in the memorable Congress which then assembled, 
and as a fellow-member also of the little party of less than a 
dozen men who disowned all allegiance to both the Whig and 
Democratic parties. Boarding at the same place with Judge 
Allen and a few other congenial friends during nearly the whole 
of the two sessions of this Congress, which together lasted over 
thirteen months, I had, of course, the amplest means of knowing 
him intimately. In his ordinary intercourse with others, and as 
a member of the House also, he was so quiet and undemonstra- 
tive that few comprehended his rare intellectual gifts, or the 
singular charm of his manner as he revealed himself to his 
intimate friends. I may add, too, that even at this compara- 
tively early day in his career he labored under the serious 
disadvantage of feeble health. The slave power also, then in 
the full sweep of its despotism, took good care, of course, to 
keep such men in the background. Even Thaddeus Stevens, 
who in later years became so famous as a debater and party 
leader, and had offended the black oligarchy so much less than 
Judge Allen, was not able in this Congress to write down any 
clear prophecy of the career which awaited him when perfectly 
unshackled by the power which then held him in check. The 
men who resisted the organization of the House in the interest 
of slavery for weeks in succession, and thus offended both slave- 
holders and doughfaces, could expect no coveted place on the 
committees and no political favors in any quarter. Judge Allen, 
however, whenever his health would permit, was at his post of 
duty, ever watchful of the proceedings of Congress, and con- 
scientiously resolved to act well his part as a servant of the 
people. On a few occasions, of which his encounter with Mr. 
Ashmun is an example, his reserved power was strikingly 
brought out, and the House listened to him with admiration and 
breathless interest. Judge Allen was passionately fond of 
English literature. On entering his room I always found on his 
table "Half Hours with the Best Authors" or some favorite 
volume of poetr}' ; and I used to listen to his readings with 
delight. He was master of the rare art of good reading, know- 
ing exactly how to give to the hearer the full force and compass 
of his author's meaning. He was unconimotily familiar with 
theological and religious literature, and his conversation on these 



41 

topics was full of instruction. In his occasional discussions of 
political issues with those who differed from him, it was impos- 
sible to escape the real point in dispute. He never failed to 
bring his opponent promptly back to it, and pin him there if he 
sought to escape ; and when he detected in him any form of 
sophistry or dishonesty was sure to make him disagreeably 
sensible of it. There was a vein of sarcasm about him which 
I have never seen excelled. It was keen and terrible ; but he 
uniformly reserved it for fit occasions and for subjects that 
deserved it. His love of justice and truth was supreme, but his 
heart was as sunny and kind as that of a child. 

The political and social ostracism of the little party of radicals 
with whom he was associated in Washington was keenly felt, and 
led to weekly social meetings at the residence of Dr. Bailey, of 
the National Era, where we frequently met leading anti-slavery 
people from various sections. These were most delightful occa- 
sions, showing the delightful social tendencies of the members, 
and indicating the struggle it must have cost them to break away 
from cherished associations and stand alone in defence of hated 
political doctrines. If left to his natural inclinations, I think 
Judge Allen would never have filled a public office ; and I am 
quite sure he would have shunned the hard and ungracious strife 
of party politics. He was, in the very best sense, a patriot; 
and, therefore, while singularly fitted to enjoy the sweet quiet of 
home, and to charm in the social circle and around the fireside, 
he listened only to the voice of duty when summoned to the 
public service. 

I infer from his frequent conversations about Mr. Webster, 
that his personal and political relations with him had been the 
kindliest. Up to the last moment, I think, he clung to the hope 
that Webster would not go over to the South ; and it was a real 
grief to him when he found himself finally disappointed. On 
the memorable 7th of March, Judge Allen was not able to be in 
the House. I happened that day to be in the Senate and heard 
the whole of the recreant speech which recorded Mr. Webster's 
apostasy from his New England faith. On returning from the 
session, I related to Judge Allen what had happened, giving him 
the chief points of the speech and attempting to describe the 
effort, almost amounting to an agony, which it seemed to cost Mr. 
Webster to deliver it. I shall never forget the inexpressible 



42 

sadness of Judge Allen's face as I gave him these particulars. 
The fatal step had now been taken and thenceforward he must, 
of course, regard Webster as the enemy of his country, because 
the enemy of liberty. The pang caused by this event, affecting 
as it must his social relations with Mr. Webster, was patiently 
endured, in the desire to stand all the more firmly by the cause of 
freedom, now dearer than ever because more than ever imperilled 
by the faithlessness of its friends. 

Of the controversy which followed between Judge Allen and 
Mr. Webster it is, perhaps, needless to speak. I believed at the 
time, as I still do, that Judge Allen was right in the charges 
made by him against Mr. Webster, in March, 1851 ; and I was 
willing, therefore, to offer in the House a preamble and resolu- 
tions calling for an investigation. The House, then in the 
complete control of men who had surrendered the country to the 
keeping of the slave power, very naturally voted down the pro- 
posed inquiry. It was never officially made ; but Judge Allen's 
good name suffered no detriment in the judgment of his country- 
men by reason of his charges. On the contrary, I think it safe 
to say that the general verdict has been in his favor. Time has 
awarded justice to both parties, and this is all that the friends of 
Judge Allen could ask. Should the friends of Mr. Webster, 
however, see fit at any time to drag this controversy again before 
the public, and insist upon a rehearing, I doubt not that facts in 
abundance can be produced in justification of the investigation 
which was proposed. 

As to Judge Allen's course, in connection with the other Free 
Soil members of the House, in resisting its organization under 
Mr. Winthrop, time has fully vindicated him and his co-laborers. 
They were ready at all times to vote for Thaddeus Stevens, as for 
any other Whig for Speaker who could be trusted ; but they knew 
Mr. Winthrop to be false to freedom, and, therefore, they did light 
in resolutely refusing to vote for him. Many good men then 
thought tliey were mistaken ; but the subsequent action of Mr. 
Winthrop himself has removed all doubts as to the wisdom of 
their course. Nor does Judge Allen's conduct need any vindica- 
tion in separating himself from the Whig party, in 1848, and 
johiing the anti-slavery revolt of tliat year. That movement 
did not carry the electoral vote of a single state ; but its moral 
effect saved Oregon from slavery, made California a free state, 



43 

secured cheap postage to the people, and launched the policy of 
free homes on the public domain which finally prevailed in 1862. 
Nor can history fail to record that the Free Soil movement was 
the prophecy and parent of Ihe larger one which rallied under 
Fremont in 1856, under Lincoln in 1860, and which finally saved 
the nation from destruction by the armed rebels whom it had 
vanquished at the ballot-box. The leaders in this grand uprising 
of 1848 are, therefore, not unworthy of their country's honor and 
praise ; and of all these leaders, whether in New England or out 
of it, I rank Charles Allen second to none in ability, courage, 
singleness of purpose, and the power to inspire and wisely guide 
his fellow-men. In the grasp and poise of his mind I believe 
no man in New England, save Webster, was his superior, in the 
judgment of those who knew him best; while the purity of his 
life and the loftiness of his patriotism are unquestioned and 
unquestionable. Such are my views and impressions, drawn 
from a brief but intimate acquaintance, which closed nearly 
twenty years ago ; and it affords me a real pleasure to record 
them in compliance with your wishes. 

I am, very truly yours, 

Geo. W. Julian. 
After the defeat of Gen. Scott, it was proposed by the 
leaders of the Free Soil party in Washington, at a meeting- 
held at the house of Dr. Bailey, editor of the National 
Era, to al)andon their distinctive organization, and either 
unite again with the Whigs or abandon political effort 
altogether. Ephraim seemed given over to his idols. 
The Democratic party was triumphant everywhere. Their 
Whig competitors had declared their acquiescence in the 
compromise measures of 1850. Slavery was intrenched 
in House, Senate, the Presidency, the Supreme Court, in 
trade, connnerce, at the Bar, and in the highest social 
circles of all the great cities. It seemed to many men 
that its enemies were but beatino- their heads against walls. 
Such was the feeling of the little band of discouraged 
champions who gathered at Dr. Bailey's the winter after 
the election of Franklin Pierce to discuss their future 
prospects. Mr. Allen, however, was not one of the dis- 



44 

coui-aged. He maintained that it would be impossible for 
the slave power to remain stationary ; that some new 
encroachment would occur before long which would excite 
the North and inspire new confidence in the opponents of 
slavery. It is said that he advocated these views in a 
speech of great power, and succeeded in impressing the 
meeting with his own good cheer. His prophecy was 
verified early in the following administration, by Mr. 
Douglas's proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise, 
followed soon after l)y the struggle between the settlers 
from the free and slave states for the possession of Kansas, 
and by the Dred Scott decision. 

During Mr. Allen's term of service the Compromise 
measures of 1850 were discussed and enacted. Mr. Allen 
came home from Washington in the autumn of that year, 
and addressed his constituents in two speeches of marvel- 
lous power. In 1848 he had prayed "That God might 
keep Daniel Webster from the toils of the slave power, 
and that we might be spared from the sight of that strong 
man grinding in the prison-house of the Philistines." 
After Mr. Webster's 7th of March speech, Mr. Allen's 
last hope of support from Mr. Webster was abandoned. 
He denounced his old leader and friend in lano^uaoe which 
justice to him and to those who thought with him requires 
us to preserve, as showing the temper of the times and 
the boldness with which the most powerful character was 
assailed by Judge Allen in the defence of what he believed 
the cause of righteousness and constitutional liberty : — 

" Mr. Webster, I know, says that tlie opinion of no man 
who denies the constitutionality of this measure [the 
Fugitive Slave Law] is of any worth. In the usual arro- 
gant style in which lie sees fit of late to address the public, 
he declares that the opinion, which has been expressed by 
intelligent men, by lawyers and jurists, and by able minds 
in every department of life, that the law is against the 
spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution, is not worthy 
of consideration. He assumes to dictate to the people the 



45 

true construction of the Constitution, in a matter deeply 
affecting them ; and he dechires that the hundreds and 
thousands of voices, ah-eady raised in all parts of the 
country to denounce this measure for its unconstitu- 
tionality, are to be disregarded or treated with contempt. 

" My friends, I know well the great intelligence of that 
distinguished man, Daniel Webster. I know very well 
the power of his mighty intellect, how it stands out in 
monstrous disproportion to every other attriljute of the 
man. I bow in silent wonder before the mj^sterious 
dispensation of Providence which saw fit to confer so 
much intellectual power where there was so little moral 
strength. My friends, Mr. Webster never will vindicate 
the principles of the Free Soil party. Never ! Never ! 
The Free Soil party has no pensions to bestow upon him. 
Freedom has no chain of ijold to bind the sriant to her 
service. She seeks for no such service. But she asks the 
aid and assistance of honest minds and earnest hearts, — of 
men who cannot be bought by gold, and who will not be 
beguiled of their rights by gold-bought sophistry. My 
friends, what is knowledge, what is wisdom, without 
goodness as a guide in the affairs of life ? And what but 
a demon would the greatest intellect which the Deity ever 
created be if it stood independent of goodness ? The Avorld 
has had examples of men in all ages who were gifted with 
great powers of intellect, and who yet would fall before 
temptations which the feeblest of mankind often resist. 
The instances, as you know, have not been few, but 
many, — so many that, I trust, the people have long since 
learned to disregard the dictation of mere intellect where 
there are no qualities of the heart also upon Avhich they 
can rely. 

" I call to mind at this moment one of the most distin- 
guished men the world ever knew. It will be no disparage- 
ment to say that he possessed an intellect superior even to 
that of Mr. Webster himself. Certainly his attainments 
in every department of knowledge were far superior. And 
yet he sank before temptations which the weakest resist, 
and was dismissed from the highest place of state in 
disgrace and with contempt. That man, characterized as 
^ the wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind,' stands on the 
page of history as a warning to the world that intelligence 



46 

and virtue are not insei)aral)ly combined, and that 3'on 
miiyt see to it that the brilliant intellect to which you turn 
lor guidance and direction, is itself controlled and directed 
by unwavering principle. My friends, I have a right thus 
to speak of Mr. Webster, and it is my duty to speak thus 
of him. It is the duty of every man, even of the feeblest, 
to exert what little strength he has to prevent the fountains 
of pul)lic sentiment from being poisoned by the statesman 
who has turned all the energy of his great mind in a 
direction hostile to the public interest. I have a right 
thus to speak of him from what we know and what we 
believe of the inducements and motives which gave a new 
direction to his whole political action. When we find him 
turning his back upon principles which he had advocated 
in the most solemn manner again and again, not in his 
youth merely, but in the maturity of his great mind, which 
he had early vindicated, Avhich he had at all periods 
sustained ; Avhen we find him changing his position, array- 
ing himself on the side of oppression, and seeking to 
delude the whole public into the same false position, we 
have a right to say that the man is not to be trusted as a 
guide to the people. Rather trust the feeblest intellect 
that sheds its glimmering though feeble light over the path 
of duty." 

This arraiijnment of INIr. Webster cannot be omitted 
without omitting an important part of the political history 
of the time, and especially an important act in the career 
of Charles Allen. As we look back today, nearly forty 
years, upon these great events and these great actors, we 
can discover reasons for modifying the severe judgment 
which the lovers of liberty of his day rendered of the 
motives and conduct of Daniel Webster. We can see 
that he might well have been sincere in his belief that it 
would not be in the power of the South to fasten itself 
upon the unoccupied territory of the West, even without 
any national prohibition. Certainly California and Kansas, 
under most unfavorable circumstances, were rescued from 
the blight of slavery without any exertion of national 
authority. We can also see that the fear of a dissolution 



47 

of the Union, which so impressed the mind of Mr. Web- 
ster, was not the idle fancy which his opponents at that 
day were accnstomed to believe it. We can see, too, that 
if the struggle had come between the North and the South 
in 1850, before the extension of our railroad system, l^efore 
the great increase of wealth, and especially the increase 
of manufacturing j)ower which came to the North in the 
ten years' interval, and before steam-power had come into 
use on vessels of war, that a war undertaken for the coer- 
cion or conquest of the South might have had a very 
different ending from that of the struggle which broke 
out in 1861. We can also well believe that if Daniel 
Webster's life had been spared he would have been found, 
as his follower and friend, Edward Everett, was found, 
among the most zealous defenders of his country, and that 
all his sympathies Avould have been given to the Union in 
a war in which, as it has been well said, every cannon on 
that side was shotted with his great reply to Hayne. 

The men who condemned Daniel Webster, and the men 
who came to his side, had alike drunk deeply of the 
inspiration of his own teaching. He had taught the youth 
of New England, at Plymouth and at Bunker Hill, to 
reverence beyond all other human objects of esteem the 
men who had abandoned their country and the men who 
had taken up arms against their government that civil 
liberty might not perish. He had pledged them on the 
rock where their ancestors landed to co-operate with the 
laws of men and the justice of heaven to extirpate and 
destroy the slave trade. How came he to be advocating a 
Fugitive Slave Law, and hel[)ing to extend the area of 
slavery from the Mississippi to the Pacific? On the other 
hand, it was he that first taught America her own great- 
ness ; that had evoked the national spirit in the bosoms of 
his countrymen, and taught them that their best hope la}'^ 
in the supremacy of the Constitution and the Union. 
Should they not listen when he warned them that the 



48 

Union was in danger, and demanded of them obedience to 
the plain behest of the Constitution as the price of its 
safety ? One side appealed to the love of liberty :' the 
other to the love of country. One side appealed to the 
voice of conscience in the soul ; the other invoked the 
decisions of Congress and the supremacy of national law. 
The judgment Avhich the Free Soilers of 1850 formed 
of Daniel Webster and the judgment which his country- 
men, even those who differed from him, have formed, after 
the passion and excitement of his time have died, are both 
expressed in a manner which no other man can equal, by 
John G. Whittier, that master of every chord in the hearts 
of his countrjTiien, in two matchless poems. In each of 
them he spake truly the sentiment of anti-slavery New 
England. " Ichabod " was its first voice of disappointment 
and sorrow : — 

" So fallen ! so lost! the light withdrawn 
Which once he wore ! 
The glory from his gray hairs gone 
Forevermore. 



Revile hira not— the Tempter hath 

A snare for all ; 
And pitying tears, not scorn and wrath, 

Befit his fall ! 

O, dumb be passion's stormy rage, 

When he who might 
Have lighted up and led his age. 

Falls back in night. 

Scorn ! would the angels laugh, to mark 

A Ijright soul driven. 
Fiend-goaded, down the endless dark, 

From Hope and Heaven ! 

Let not the land once proud of him 

Insult him now. 
Nor brand with deeper shame his dim, 

Dishonored brow. 



49 

But let its humbled sons, instead, 

From sea to lake, 
A long lament, as for the dead, 

In sadness make. 

Of all we loved and honored, naught 

Save power remains, — 
A fallen angel's pride of thought, 

Still strong in chains. 

All else is gone, from those great eyes 

The soul has fled : 
When Faith is lost, when Honor dies, 

The man is dead ! 

Then, pay the reverence of old days 

To his dead fame ; 
"Walk backward, with averted gaze, 

And hide the shame !" 

The " Lost Occasion " expressed its riper and its 
gentler judgment : — 

" Too soon for us, too soon for thee, 
Beside thy lonely Northern sea. 
Where long and low the marsh-lands spread. 
Laid wearily down thy august head. 

Thou shouldst have lived to feel below 
Thy feet Disunion's fierce upthrow, — 
The late-sprung mine that underlaid 
Thy sad concessions vainly made. 

Thou shouldst have seen from Sumter's wall 
The star-flag of the Union fall. 
And armed Rebellion pressing on 
The broken lines of Washington ! 

No stronger voice than thine had then 
Called out the utmost might of men. 
To make the Union's charter free 
And strengthen law by liberty. 

How had that stern arbitrament 
To thy gray age youth's vigor lent. 
Shaming ambition's paltry prize 
Before thy disillusioned eyes ; 
4 



50 



Breaking the spell about thee wound 
Like the green withes that Samson bound ; 
Redeeming, in one effort grand, 
Thyself and thy imperilled land ! 

Ah, cruel fate, that closed to thee, 
O sleeper by the Northern sea. 
The gates of opportunity ! 



God Alls the gaps of human need, 
Each crisis brings its word and deed. 

Wise men and strong we did not lack ; 
But still, with memory turning back. 
In the dark hours we thought of thee, 
And thy lone grave beside the sea." 

But we must describe Charles Allen, and tell the story 
of his life as it was. We must do justice to the heroic 
courage which never (juailed or flinched before the most 
powerful antagonist that either Massachusetts or America 
ever produced. 

Judge Allen lived to see the triumph of the great cause 
which he had espoused in its infancy and weakness. He 
lived to see slavery abolished hy the Thirteenth Amend- 
ment to the Constitution. He lived to enjoy the respect 
of the peoi)le of the Commonwealth, without distinction of 
party or opinion. The dauntless advocate of liberty, the 
Avise, learned and inflexible judge and stainless" citizen, 
received the only rcAvard for which he cared, — the affection 
and honor of good men everywhere. His private life had 
been simple and frugal. He could say with John Milton, 
" I am not one who has disgraced beauty of sentiment by 
deformity of conduct, or the maxims of a freeman by the 
actions of a slave ; but, by the grace of God, I have kept 
my life unsullied." 

During his second term in Congress, a proposal was 
made to entrust the negotiation of a government loan for 
paying the expenses of the Mexican War, and the sum to 
be i)aid to Mexico as an equivalent for her cession of terri- 
tory, to the Department of State, of Avhich Mr. Webster 



51 

was then the head. Judge Allen earnestly resisted this 
proposition. He claimed that the well-known fact that 
Mr. Webster was enabled to defray his large household 
expenditure while he held office by contributions from 
business men, largely brokers and bankers, unfitted him 
for the discharge of the delicate duty of negotiating a loan 
with them ; a transaction from which they might well 
expect to derive a considerable profit. But he found no 
support on either side of the House. 

Mr. Allen left Congress, contrary to the earnest desires 
of his constituents, at the end of his second term, on the 
third of March, 1853. But he maintained his leadership 
in the politics of Worcester County, and his large in- 
fluence in the state, until he went upon the bench in 
1858. He Avas a member of the Convention to revise 
the Constitution in 1853, where he exerted a powerful 
influence. The new constitution proposed l)y that con- 
vention was rejected by the people ; but the volumes 
containing its debates are full of interest. Some of 
Mr. Allen's speeches will be found there reported. In 
1854 the Know Nothing party, as it was called, whose 
fundamental principle was the desire to exclude men of 
foreign birth from the right to vote in this country, came 
into power. It elected, in the autumn of 1854, the entire 
State Government of Massachusetts, including every 
member of the Senate, and every member of the House 
but two representatives from the town of Northampton, 
and the entire delegation in Congress. Many of Mr. 
Allen's most prominent associates, including Henry Wilson, 
yielded to the torrent, and either joined the new party, 
which held its meetings in secret, or counselled against 
any active resistance. But the whole movement was 
repugnant to Charles Allen. He set his face steadfastly 
against it from the first to the last. He addressed a little 
company of followers, who gathered on the front seats in 
the old City Hall, in a speech which 1 well remember. In 



52 

the course of his speech he denounced the Know Nothing 
movement, to Avhose principles and methods he was 
earnestly opposed. He said, " Perhaps I am speaking too 
boldly, but I learned to speak boldly a long time ago. I 
will speak my sentiments in the face of any organization ; 
or, if it does not show its face, though its secret mines are 
beneath my feet, and unseen hands ready to apply the 
match, I will declare those sentiments that a freeman is 
})Ound to utter." The speech was filled with the powerful 
and profound reasoning and the caustic wit which were 
alike characteristic of Mr. Allen. The candidate of the 
Republican party for Governor had himself joined the 
Know Nothings, and Avas advocating the election of their 
candidate and his own defeat. Mr. Allen's onl}^ allusion 
to him was in a single sentence. He said to his audience, 
"Fellow citizens, there is much in this campaign from 
which 3^ou may take courage ; you have a very respectable 
candidate for Lieutenant-Governor." He lived to take a 
leading part, in the fall of 1857, in the movement for the 
nomination of Gov. Banks, which led to the overthrow of 
Know Nothing power in Massachusetts, and to the perma- 
nent estal)lishment of the rule of the Republican party. 

The Know Nothing i)arty carried to an unjustifiable 
extreme its opposition to citizens of foreign birth. Its 
political methods, especially the secrecy of its proceedings, 
are not to be defended. As old Josiah Quincy well said 
in a vigorous pamphlet, "The doom of the Republic is 
sealed when the bats take the lead of the eagles." But 
manj^ persons who joined it cared little for its principles. 
They did not mean to continue long in its ranks ; still less 
to continue long in its practice of secrecy. But they 
thought it an excellent weapon for the destruction of the 
old parties, who stood in the way of the progress of free 
principles. They thought if the old ground Avcre cleared 
and levelled, with whatever plough, they might get fresher 
and better crops in future. Henry Wilson joined the 



53 

party one year and abandoned it the next. He was the 
candidate of the Republican party for Governor in 1854, 
and did his best as a Know Nothing to defeat his oAvn 
election. Within twelve months Mr. Wilson had been 
elected to the Senate of the United States and the Repub- 
lican party had been organized. It came within a few 
thousand votes of electing its Governor in the autvunn of 
1855. Most of the members of the Know Nothing party 
returned to the Democratic party or joined the Republican 
party in the presidential election of 185(). The autunni 
of 1857 witnessed its final overthrow in Massachusetts. 
It soon afterward disappeared. Mr. Wilson declared later 
in life that his connection with that part}^ was the fact in 
his career which he most regretted, and that he would give 
ten years of his life if he could wipe it out. 

Mr. Allen took an active part in the formation of the 
Republican party in 1854, which, however, got little 
assistance from anybody but members of the old Free Soil 
})arty, and was, in fact, but that party under another 
name. In 1855 the attempt was renewed with greater 
success, and with Mr. Allen's heart}^ concurrence. But in 
that he found plenty of associates, and the course of events 
soon brought a large majority of the people of the state 
into that organization. 

Mr. Allen presided at the great meeting in Worcester in 
aid of the Free State settlers in Kansas, in the year 185(3, 
where he made a speech of great power, and where the 
citizens of Worcester raised upward of ten thousand 
dollars by voluntary contribution before leaving the hall. 
He also presided at the great meeting in the City Hall to 
express the public indignation at the assault on Charles 
Sumner in 1856. But the work of convincing the con- 
science and understanding of the people of Massachusetts 
and of organizing its political forces had been thoroughly 
done. Mr. Allen's last important service was in the great 



54 

influence which he exerted in bringing about the nomina- 
tion of Gov. Banks, in the autumn of 1857. 

He understood well and knew how to apply in practical 
life two of the most important texts of scripture, — the 
verse, " We have this treasure in earthen vessels," and the 
parable of the tares. I admit that both these are texts 
dangerous of application by men of weak intelligence or 
of weak moral sense. But to know when and how to 
api)ly them is to know the secret of the difference between 
a statesman and a fanatic. It is the secret of the difference 
between success and failure. He knew well that when a 
great cause is at stake, in the very crisis of battle, it is no 
time to be criticising and carping at the faults or foibles 
of the leader, so the battle be well ordered and the heart 
of the leader be true. He understood, also, that often- 
times in the life of all nations the tares cannot be uprooted 
without destruction to the wheat, and that both must grow 
together until the harvest. But he never flinched or 
faltered or held back from strikino- his mortal blow at the 
enemy who sowed them. 

The relation of Charles Allen to the political revolution 
in Massachusetts was like that of his kinsman, Sam 
Adams, to the Revolution of 1775. He performed, with 
signal ability and to the entire satisfaction of his associates 
and of the people, every public duty which fell upon him. 
But, besides and beyond this, he was a leader of leaders, — 
a counsellor of counsellors. He had the mit of intellectual 
ascendency over other minds, which, like that of Hamilton 
and of Sam Adams, seemed to be more complete the abler 
and more powerful the intellect on which his influence 
was exerted. There were men in the days which preceded 
the American Revolution more famous than Sam Adams. 
To a superficial observation their words and actions seemed 
to exert a greater influence on their contemjioraries or on 
posterity. Hancock and John Adams and James Otis in 
Massachusetts, Patrick Henry and Jefferson and the other 



55 

great Virginians, produced more striking effects by single 
speeches or state papers than any which are recorded of 
Sam Adams, But he furnished, even to them, counsel, 
courage, decision, stimulant in great and difficult emer- 
gencies. He was ever at the helm, or it was his word 
that the helmsman obeyed. Ample proof of this statement 
will be found in the writings of the greatest of his contem- 
poraries. 

The same thing is true of Charles Allen, in his relation 
to the great political revolution which saved from slavery 
the territory between the Mississippi and the Pacific and, 
in the end, abolished slavery throughout the country. 
Sumner and Palfrey and Charles Francis Adams sat at the 
feet of Charles Allen and looked up to him as to an oracle 
and guide. His unerring judgment never failed, his 
couraare never flinched. There cannot be found in his 
history the record of a single mistake. 

Another thing is specially to be remarked of the career 
of Charles Allen ; that is, the wisdom with which he 
selected the occasion Avhen it was worth while to do battle. 
He is not found criticising his associates or his opponents 
for small personal faults. He never wasted his strength. 
He knew how to distinguish what is essential from what is 
non-essential. He never dealt his blows at antagonists who 
Avere sure to destroy themselves if let alone, and never 
gave battle when the result of the conflict was likely to be 
unimi)ortant or without influence upon the final result of 
the war. He never destroyed the wheat with the tares. 
He devoted himself to the great question, not to the small 
question. He attacked the great antagonist and disre- 
gfarded the mean antagonist. He struck his blow at the 
Whig party in the height and flush of its triumph. He 
attacked Daniel Webster in the fulness of his strenorth 
and influence. He struck at the heart and his blow was 
mortal. Other men, more conspicuous in the public ej^e, 
have received a larger share of credit for their service in 



56 



the .n-eat conflict for freedom. We would not p uck away 
one of their laurels, or detract in the lea.t from then- wel - 
Tned fame. But let us not forget him who wa« neve, 
ms'ken in his counsel; whose Abdiel stroke was ever 
TIrat the right time and in the right place; who knew 
tw to .seize the moment; whcse cheerful and confident 
courage never abated in the darkest hour and never failed 
in the" presence of the most powerful antagonist. 



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